yes i had my 1st accident that i caused last sunday
ive had the odd bump in the past but sunday on me way to antwerp just on the gent bridge at 8pm i went to overtake a slow van towing a trailer and i side swipped a 406 peugeot sent him spinning into the concrete barrier backwards
Ijust thanked my lucky stats nobody was hurt only the metal was twisted
the one funny thing to come out of it was the policeman said it happens all the time with you righthand trucks and your blind spot…i bet him not as offten as in the uk thou with left hand trucks
passed my breathe test and details taken by police, guy managed to drive his wreck home and i didnt over take another thing till about thursday afternoon was a bit shaken by it all
so it happens to the best of us
and when i got back to the yard my boss didnt even wanna see the damage to his truck just asked if i wanted an extra blind spot mirror fitted
I hope that you have got over the shock by now Malc.
Nothing new about rhd trucks side swiping cars on cars over the water in fact Rotterdam as they race for the boat is quite a hot spot for it unfortunately
The main difference though between over here is that every time it happens you do not get a clamour for all UK trucks to be banned from the roads because they are a hazard and dangerous ,
While admitting that it does happen as much over here as in the UKthis is really only due to the fact that less Brit trucks come across the water than foreign trucks going to the UK. If anyone could be bothered to collate all the information you would probably find that the amount of cars side swiped per vehicles and kilometrs driven is actually about the same.
As Malc has found out this can happen to anyone no matter how many blind spot mirrors are fitted to the vehicle.
Sorry to hear about your little bump,
but glad to read that no one was hurt
as for the bent metal, that can be replaced,
also as Vas stated it does happen often but
no one screams out loud to ban RHD lorries,
Man is doing trails with a new sensor system
which will warn when there is something
in the Blind spot
Have a look at the link,HERE
This looks like a good solution and may
help ever one of us NOT to have this type of accident,
Unlucky Malc ,it can happen to anyone i have those blind spot mirrors fitted
on the main mirror and even with them you still have to be careful as you
can still miss a car down there! At least no one was injured.
Simon, i almost said cheap OR free, but i wasn’t sure how UK trucks went on for getting them as (sadly) i don’t go over the water myself these days. I know foreign trucks can get one free when they come here.
I have a fresnel lens on my wagon now, care of a womble at Cambridge services. I just wandered up to him, mentioned that I was in a foreign motor, and asked for one. By the way, I couldn’t find one at Tilbury docks or Ramsgate… Just find an HA womble parked up in any services with lots of truck parking, and ask him. Tell him you’re in a foreign motor if he asks you why you need it But it was a life saver when I spent last week in the UK. Mine is actually twisted 90 degrees anticlock from where it’s supposed to be so I can see on UK roundabouts, since my mirrors don’t leave a big blindspot on the right. But it does give me a nice view down the right side of the cab. And they’re thin enough to not bugger up your leccy windows
They’re held on just by the tension of the water and static. You can just peel them off carefully and re-use them. Or, at least the ones HA give away are.
In the standard orientation, they give a view down the side of the wagon, like this it gives a bit of a view down, but it’s mainly back and right (on my left ■■■■■■) so I can see stuff coming when pulling out onto roundabouts and from angled junctions. It’s where my biggest blindspot is. My right side wide-angle covers a lot of the right side of the truck, and there’s a kerb mirror that side too, which means I can usually spot something over there. I just am very careful and take lots of long looks in that mirror before doing overtakes, and watch for the traffic getting out of the way
,
But it was a life saver when I spent last week in the UK. Mine is actually twisted 90 degrees anticlock from where it’s supposed to be so I can see on UK roundabouts, since my mirrors don’t leave a big blindspot on the right. But it does give me a nice view down the right side of the cab. And they’re thin enough to not bugger up your leccy windows 
